After only 7 kilometers, Tim and Tom Coronel suffered their first puncture on the stones; after 100 kilometers it happened again and they ran out of spare tires. As a result, they had to drive more than 330 kilometers carefully during the third stage of the Dakar Rally. Shortly before the finish, a bike came into the opposite direction and hit the Century CR6, there is quite a bit of damage and only a short time to repair everything.
It was a nice stage though Tom thought. “It was a really cool stage. There were some really serious dunes in it, really straight up. We had to go back a couple of times to turn around, because we didn’t make it in one go. It was a varied course and some of the dunes were almost impossible to take, but it all went well.”
With 27 kilometers to go, something unexpected happened, Tim recounted. “Suddenly a bike came in the opposite direction and hit full on the hood. We stopped immediately, but he felt fine. That was a bit of a scare though, but fortunately the motorcyclist is otherwise OK.”
The car did not come out of the third stage unscathed. “There was something at the back near the gearbox anyway, but the guys have already fixed that. Because of the collision with the bike, we still have to work on the front. The windshield is broken and we only have two hours of work today. So it was really a difficult day today.”
Tomorrow the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally goes from Al Salamiya to Al Hofuf. It will be a long day with more than 330 kilometers of connection and also 299 kilometers at speed. The main emphasis will be on navigation during the second half of the marathon stage.
